Field
The present disclosure relates to a liquid crystal display device and a method of manufacturing the same. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a liquid crystal display device having a column spacer structure.
Discussion of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (LCD) device has a high contrast ratio and low power consumption and is suitable for displaying a moving image. Therefore, it has been applied to various fields such as laptop computers, monitors, and TVs. Liquid crystals have a thin and long liquid crystal molecule. Further, liquid crystals exhibit optical anisotropy with directionality in alignment and polarization by which alignment of the liquid crystals may change depending on the intensity of an electric field when the liquid crystals are within the electric field. Thus, the LCD device implements an image using the optical anisotropy and polarization of liquid crystals.
Generally, the LCD device includes a liquid crystal panel manufactured by bonding two facing substrates and a liquid crystal layer is interposed between the two facing substrates. Electrodes are formed on inner surfaces of the two substrates. An electric field applied to the electrodes causes a change in alignment of liquid crystal molecules and thus causes a difference in light transmissivity.
Due to the difference in light transmissivity of the liquid crystal panel, a light supplied from a backlight unit placed on a back surface of the liquid crystal panel is allowed to pass. A color combination implemented by the light supplied from the backlight unit when passing through a color filter is displayed as a color image.
Generally, a LCD device manufacturing process can be divided into a substrate manufacturing process, a cell process, and a module process. The substrate manufacturing process is a process for separately manufacturing an array substrate and a color filter substrate. The cell process is a process for completing a liquid crystal panel. Further, the module process is a process for integrating the liquid crystal panel and a backlight unit.
To be specific, in the substrate manufacturing process, thin film deposition, photo-lithography, etching, etc. are repeated many times to implement a thin film transistor (TFT) array layer and a color filter layer on each substrate. In the cell process, a seal pattern for bonding is formed on any one of the TFT array substrate and the color filter substrate and the two substrates are bonded facing each other with a liquid crystal layer interposed therebetween to complete a liquid crystal panel. In the module process, the completed liquid crystal panel is bonded to a polarizing plate, a driving circuit, etc. and then integrated with a backlight unit to complete a LCD device.
Meanwhile, a spacer is positioned between the TFT array substrate and the color filter substrate to maintain a constant gap therebetween. The spacer can be classified into a ball spacer and a column spacer depending on a shape and a placement method thereof. The ball spacers are scattered on the array substrate or the color filter substrate, and the column spacer is formed on the array substrate or the color filter substrate by patterning. Recently, the column spacer which can be formed into a desired shape at a specific location has been widely used.